The Blessed One said, “I will teach & analyze for you the Noble
Eightfold Path. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak.”

“As you say, lord,” the monks responded to him.

The Blessed One said, “Now what, monks, is the Noble Eightfold Path?
Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right
livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

“And what, monks, is right view? Knowledge with regard to stress,
knowledge with regard to the origination of stress, knowledge with
regard to the stopping of stress, knowledge with regard to the way of
practice leading to the stopping of stress: This, monks, is called
right view.

“And what is right resolve? Being resolved on renunciation, on
freedom from ill will, on harmlessness: This is called right resolve.

“And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, abstaining from
divisive speech, abstaining from abusive speech, abstaining from idle
chatter: This, monks, is called right speech.

“And what, monks, is right action? Abstaining from taking life,
abstaining from stealing, abstaining from unchastity: This, monks, is
called right action.

“And what, monks, is right livelihood? There is the case where a
disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood,
keeps his life going with right livelihood: This, monks, is called
right livelihood.

“And what, monks, is right effort? (i) There is the case
where a monk generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence,
upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of
evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen. (ii) He
generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds &
exerts his intent for the sake of the abandonment of evil, unskillful
qualities that have arisen. (iii) He generates desire,
endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for
the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
(iv) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence,
upholds & exerts his intent for the maintenance, non-confusion,
increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful
qualities that have arisen: This, monks, is called right effort.

“And what, monks, is right mindfulness? (i) There is the case
where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent,
aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference
to the world. (ii) He remains focused on feelings in & of
themselves — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting away greed &
distress with reference to the world. (iii) He remains focused
on the mind in & of itself — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting
away greed & distress with reference to the world. (iv) He
remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent,
aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference
to the world. This, monks, is called right mindfulness.

“And what, monks, is right concentration? (i) There is the
case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from
unskillful (mental) qualities — enters & remains in the first
jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by
directed thought & evaluation. (ii) With the stilling of
directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the
second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification
of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal
assurance. (iii) With the fading of rapture, he remains
equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He
enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones
declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.’ (iv)
With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier
disappearance of elation & distress — he enters & remains in
the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither
pleasure nor pain. This, monks, is called right concentration.”

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted at his words.

The Parajika is a short section of Buddhist religious text outlining the ways in which a bhikkhu (monk) or bhikkhuni (nun) could become disrobed and cast out of the Sangha (the monastic order).

The word “parajika” comes from a Paliverb meaning something along the lines of “to lose” or “to be defeated“. The ending phrase “[to be] defeated and no longer in communion” refers to a spiritual sense of defeat, and expulsion from the sangha.
Parajika is also the term for one of the offenses outlined in the above
text. If a bhikkhu or commits one of the parajikas, he is dismissed
from the monastic order and will not be reordained in his present lifetime. Accidental or otherwise unintentional offenses are not looked upon lightly, but are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Here these four Rules, concerning those acts which bring about Defeat, come into recitation.

Whatsoever Bhikkhu who has taken upon himself the Bhikkhus’ system of self-training and rule of life, and has not thereafter withdrawn from the training, or declared his weakness, shall have carnal knowledge of any one, down even to an animal, he has fallen into defeat, he is no longer in communion.

Whatsoever Bhikkhu shall take, from village or from wood, anything not given—what men call ‘theft‘—in such manner of taking as kings would seize the thief for, and slay, or bind, or banish him, saying, ‘Thou art a thief, thou art stupid, thou art a fool, thou art dishonest,’—the Bhikkhu who in that manner takes the thing not given, he, too, has fallen into defeat, he is no longer in communion.

Whatsoever Bhikkhu shall knowingly deprive of life a human being, or shall seek out an assassin against a human being, or shall utter the praises of death, or incite another to self-destruction, saying, ‘Ho!
my friend! what good do you get from this sinful, wretched life? death
is better to thee than life!’—if, so thinking, and with such an aim,
he, by various argument,
utter the praises of death or incite another to self-destruction—he,
too, is fallen into defeat, he is no longer in communion3.

Whatsoever Bhikkhu, without being clearly conscious of
extraordinary qualities, shall give out regarding himself that insight
into the knowledge of the noble ones
has been accomplished, saying, ‘Thus do I know,’ ‘Thus do I perceive:’
and at some subsequent time whether on being pressed, or without being
pressed, he, feeling guilty, shall be desirous of being cleansed from his fault, and shall say, ‘Brethren! when I knew not, I said that I knew; when I saw not, I said that I saw—telling a fruitless falsehood;’ then, unless he so spake through undue confidence he, too, has fallen into defeat, he is no longer in communion.

Venerable
Sirs, the four Conditions of Defeat have been recited, of which when a
Bhikkhu has fallen into one or other, he is no longer allowed to be in
co-residence with the Bhikkhus. As before, so afterwards, he is
defeated, he is not in communion.

In respect of them I ask the venerable ones, ‘Are you pure in this matter?’

A second time I ask, ‘Are you pure in this matter?’

A third time I ask, ‘Are you pure in this matter?’

The venerable ones are pure herein. Therefore do they keep silence. Thus I understand.

Here endeth the recitation of the Parajikas.

2. Buddha Discourses and Sermons, Sutta -

The Miracle of Telepathy

“And what is the miracle of telepathy? There is the case where a monk
reads the minds, the mental events, the thoughts, the ponderings of other
beings, other individuals, [saying,] ‘Such is your thinking, here is where your
thinking is, thus is your mind.’

“Then someone who has faith and conviction in him sees him reading the
minds… of other beings… He reports this to someone who has no faith and no
conviction, telling him, ‘Isn’t it awesome. Isn’t it astounding, how great the
power, how great the prowess of this contemplative. Just now I saw him reading
the minds… of other beings…’

“Then the person without faith, without conviction, would say to the
person with faith and with conviction: ‘Sir, there is a charm called the Manika
charm by which the monk read the minds… of other beings…’ What do you
think, Kevatta — isn’t that what the man without faith, without conviction,
would say to the man with faith and with conviction?”

“Yes, lord, that’s just what he would say.”

“Seeing this drawback to the miracle of telepathy, Kevatta, I feel
horrified, humiliated, and disgusted with the miracle of telepathy.

New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) Amidst tight security and
thousands of people and party workers, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati Wednesday tried to woo the upper caste voters and promised
full statehood for Delhi.

Dressed in a cream
suit with a red purse in hand, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo
arrived at a public meeting in Sultanpuri area in the capital. She was greeted by
thousands of people, applause and slogans such as ‘Mayawati Zindabad
(Long live Mayawati)’.

‘I
want to tell the people of the upper castes that our policies are not
against them. If that had been true, we would not have given them
tickets in the (2007) Uttar Pradesh elections,’ Mayawati said in her
25-minute speech.

‘We
are not for one community, we are for everyone. I promise that if voted
to power at the centre, we would provide reservation to the
economically backward people among the upper castes,’ she said.

She
called upon the people to vote for the BSP in Delhi for the capital’s
development. ‘We will regularize the unauthorised colonies in the
capital and get full statehood for Delhi,’ she added.

The
venue of the rally in west Delhi was flooded with party flags and huge
cut-outs of Mayawati, her mentor Kanshi Ram and architect of Indian
constitution B.R. Ambedkar. The BSP candidates had also pooled in a
large number of supporters.

She
referred to the humiliation of north Indians in Maharashtra and said:
‘Many people in the country are meted out step motherly treatment
outside their home states. We will sort out this issue too’.

It
was a joint rally for 36 BSP candidates of northwest, west, southwest,
outer district and north districts of Delhi. The party is contesting
all the 70 seats in the capital which goes to polls Nov 29.

Three Baskets Study Circle survey predicts BSP Victory

New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) A pre-election survey conducted by the Three Baskets Study Circle has predicted that BSP will form the next government in Delhi winning 39 of the total 70 assembly seats.The latest survey claimed the voters would base their choices on issues
of inflation, law and order situation, employment, and
justice for the poor.

The respondents felt that corruption, poverty and water-shortage had assumed serious proportions.

Like the Mighty Great Minds of UP, Delhi Minds also have decided to vote for BSP.Lesson 4

To Respected,

Mighty Great Minds David Plouffe,

His Excellency Barack
Obama,

Timothy
F. Geithner, president
and CEO of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York,

Lawrence H. Summers,
former Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton,

Christina D. Romer,

Melody C. Barnes,

Heather A. Higginbottom,

Peter Orszag,and

Rob Nabors

May you all be ever happy, well, and secure

May all sentient and non-sentient be ever happy

May all live long

May all have calm, quiet, alert, attentive and equanimity mind with clear understanding that nothing is permanent.

I too wish to contribute my share of thoughts towards Economical Emancipation for the happiness and welfare for all.

I request you to send me the email addresses of all the above mentiones Mighty Great Minds.

The message of
Gautam Buddha has endured the passage of time and continues to resonate
around the world, more than two and a half millennia later. For
centuries, the life, spirituality and the teachings of Gautam Buddha
have offered solace to millions of people across the world, and his
teachings are an invaluable part of our proud national heritage. Gautam
Buddha’s uniqueness lay in the fact that he prescribed a moral code of
conduct, based on love and compassion, which could enable any person to
realize the Truth. Gautam Buddha’s approach to be ‘ …like the breath of
the fresh wind from the mountains after the stale air of metaphysical
speculation’.

More than
2,500 years after Lord Gautam Buddha’s Maha-parinibbana, we find his
teachings still casting a lasting influence on the political and social
priorities of our times. Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, was deeply influenced
by the egalitarianism and humanism of Gautam Buddha’s teachings. He
eventually embraced Buddhism because he was seeking, in his own words, ‘Pragyan that is awakenment; Karuna, that is compassion; and Samata, that is equality.’ Dr. Ambedkar, gave a new meaning and relevance to the ancient wisdom of Gautam Buddha.

Dr. Bhimrao
Ramji Ambedkar, affectionately called ‘Baba Saheb’ by millions of his
admirers and followers, played a pivotal role in shaping the destiny of
free India and left an indelible imprint on our national life and
polity. The architect of our Constitution, the champion of the
downtrodden, and a rebel against social and economic inequities, Dr.
Amebdkar was a patriot of
sterling worth.

Born in a
‘Mahar (Aborginal Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha Bharath)’ family, Baba Saheb had to suffer the ugliest forms of caste
oppression and social discrimination by the Central Asian Invaders in his early days. But he fought
against them with indomitable courage, and overcoming the twin social
barriers of extreme poverty and caste prejudice, obtained a law degree
and multiple doctorates in law, economics and political science from
universities in the UK and USA.

Dr. Ambedkar
was chiefly instrumental in creating a new awakening, a new sense of
social significance and a unique sense of dignity and self-respect
amongst a large section of our people who were otherwise placed at the
lowest strata in our hierarchical social order of first, second, third, fourth rate of souls and human beings without any soul while the Buddha never believed in soul but felt all were equal. Endowed with
extraordinary brilliance, great foresight, tenacious purpose and
courage of conviction, Babasaheb inspired the deprived sections of our
society to question the basis of the exploitative and degrading social
milieu in which they lived and to stand up for their legitimate rights.

Baba Saheb’s
eminence as a national leader, jurist, constitutional expert and
Parliamentarian was fully recognized when he was elected to
Constituency Assembly in 1946, and appointed as the Chairman of
Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution in August, 1947. Working
prodigiously, literally burning the midnight oil, Dr. Ambedkar sat for
141 days to draw up the Draft Constitution of India. Being an
economist, legal luminary and socialist, he was deeply aware that the
Constitution was not merely a legal document but an organic entity,
representing the aspirations of millions of our countrymen. Speaking on
the vitality and the endurability of the Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar
said ‘The Constitution as settled by the Drafting Committee is
workable. It is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country
both in peace time and war time. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go
wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a
bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that man was vile.’

Dr. Ambedkar’s
attempt was to link the interest of the depressed classes and their
liberation with the common national movement for freedom. Nationalism
in him emerged out of his principled fight against both external
domination and internal oppression. His view of nationalism not only
contemplated the liberation of every country enslaved by colonial
domination but also the freedom for all subjects and subjugated people
even in free countries. He emphasized that without freedom that ensured
the dignity of all individuals social brotherhood cannot be achieved.

He believed
that certain political rights alone did not constitute the basis of
democracy. He perceived it as a form of social engineering, a way of
life. The fundamental elements in the democracy of his concept were:
liberty, equality, fraternity, reason, human experience, prevalence of
rule of law, respect for natural rights, and an emphasis on the
individual in social relationships

On the
inauguration of the Constitution, he declared in unequivocal terms that
though India had attained equality in politics, there still existed
inequality in social and economic life. In his concluding Address in
the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar forcefully put forth his views
in this regard. He said, and I quote:‘We must make our political
democracy a social democracy. It means a way of life, which recognizes
liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. Without
equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many.
Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without
fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of
things.’

The Indian
Constitution as given to us by Dr. Ambedkar is a unique affirmation of
individual rights and social justice. Its great value lies in the fact
that it guarantees social empowerment through constitutional and
democratic means. Our unique path of achieving social and economic
emancipation through peaceful and democratic means holds lessons for
all societies in transition and for all countries striving to cope with
social and economic disparities.

Dr. Ambedkar’s
role as a political leader and his intellectual contribution have
become an integral part of our country’s political evolution. He
brought to the forefront of our nation’s conscience, the deprivations
suffered by a large section of our people due to our exploitative
social system. More than anything else he will be remembered for his
role in laying the institutional foundation of our Republic and for his
heroic struggle for raising the down-trodden to a life of dignity and
self-respect.

What a
steamroller intellect he brought to bear upon this magnificent and
tremendous task; irresistible, unconquerable…; whatever he felt to be
right he stood by, regardless of consequences.

In recognition
of the distinguished services rendered by Dr. Ambedkar, the Government
of India conferred on him the nation’s highest award ‘the Bharat Ratna’
posthumously in 1990, and commemorated the centenary year of his birth
in 1990-91 as the Year of Social Justice.

Even today,
Dr. Ambedkar’s vision for a just and free society continues to guide
political thought and action in India. The scheme for affirmative
action or positive discrimination in favour of the weak, enjoys support
of all political parties across the ideological spectrum. Drawing
inspiration from Dr. Ambedkar’s life - where education provided
empowerment, the Indian State is paying special attention to making
education, especially higher education, more accessible to the weaker
sections of society.

However,
administrative measures alone cannot bring about societal changes.
There is a need to change our mind-sets too. This requires an all -
encompassing political and cultural movement against various forms of
injustice in our society. Ultimately, the battle for a just social
order has to be waged and won in the minds of our people.Narrow Minds have to be converted into Mighty Great Minds.

Today, there
are thousands of young men and women in India whose lives mirror that
of Baba Saheb. More and more talented young persons from the so-called
backward castes are able to achieve recognition in different fields due
to their merit despite disadvantages and discrimination faced by them.
And that is because of their educational attainments. As this trickle
becomes a flood, Indian Society and Economy will speedily become more
just, more equalitarian, more inclusive and above all, more productive.

India’s
position as an emerging global power will lie in the manner it treats
its weaker sections and its minorities, and in following a path of
inclusive growth. The vision of Baba Saheb and his life continue to be
a beacon light, showing us the way forward in our search for a just
social order.

Now we must thank Bahen Ms. Mayawati who is successfully carrying forward the Caravan stranded after Baba Saheb Ambedkar and elect her the next Prime Minister of Jambudvipa, that is, this Great Prabuddha Bharath.

3. Abhidhamma Pitaka of Scholasticism-The seven books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka in the Pali canon are: 3.1 Dhammasangani (”Summary of Dhamma” or “Classification of Dhammas), an enumeration of the entities constituting reality.

Analysis
of Consciousness

One of the Abhidhamma’s
most important contributions to human thought, though still insufficiently
known and utilized, is the analysis and classification of consciousness
undertaken in the first of the Dhammasangani. Here the human mind,
so evanescent and elusive, has for the first time been subjected to a
comprehensive, thorough and unprejudiced scrutiny, which definitely disposes
of the notion that any kind of static unity or underlying substance can
be traced in mind. However, the basic ethical lay-out and purpose of this
psychology effectively prevents conclusions of ethical materialism or
theoretical and practical amoralism being derived from its realistic and
unmetaphysical analysis of mind.

The method of investigation
applied in the Abhidhamma is inductive, being based exclusively
on an unprejudiced and subtle introspective observation of mental processes.
The procedure used in the Dhammasangani for the analysis of consciousness
is precisely that postulated by the English philosopher and mathematician,
A. N. Whitehead: ‘It is impossible to over-emphasize the point that the
key to the process of induction, as used either in science or in our ordinary
life, is to be found in the right understanding of the immediate occasion
of knowledge in its full concreteness…In any occasion of cognition,
that which is known is an actual occasion of experience, as diversified
by reference to a realm of entities which transcend that immediate occasion
in that they have analogous or different connections with other occasions
of experience’ (’Science and the Modern World’).

Whitehead’s term
‘occasion’ corresponds to the Abhidhamma concept samaya (time,
occasion, conjunction of circumstances), which occurs in all principal
paragraphs of the Dhammasangani, and there denotes the starting
point of the analysis. The term receives a detailed and very instructive
treatment in the Atthasalini the commentary to the aforementioned work.

The Buddha succeeded
in reducing this ‘immediate occasion’ of an act of cognition to a single
moment of consciousness, which, however, in its subtlety and evanescence,
cannot be observed, directly and separately, by a mind untrained in introspective
meditation. Just as the minute living beings in the microcosm of a drop
of water become visible only through a microscope, so, too, the exceedingly
short-lived processes in the world of mind become cognizable only with
the help of a very subtle instrument of mental scrutiny, and that only
obtains as a result of meditative training. None but the kind of introspective
mindfulness or attention (sati) that has acquired, in meditative
absorption, a high degree of inner equipoise, purity and firmness (upekkha-sati-parisuddhi),
will possess the keenness, subtlety and quickness of cognitive response
required for such delicate mental microscopy. Without that meditative
preparation only the way of inference from comparisons between various
complete or fragmentary series of thought moments will be open as a means
of research. But this approach too may yield important and reliable results,
if cautious and intelligent use is made of one’s own introspective results
and of the psychological data of meditative experience found in Sutta
and Abhidhamma.

In the Anupada Sutta
(Majjhima Nikaya 111) it is reported that the Venerable Sariputta Thera,
after rising from meditative absorption (jhana) was able to analyse the
respective jhanic consciousness into its constituent mental factors. This
may be regarded as a precursor of the more detailed analysis given in
the Dhammasangani.

Let us listen to
a voice from Indian antiquity appreciating the difficulty of that analytical
work and the greatness of its achievement. We read in the ‘Questions of
King Milinda’; “A difficult feat indeed was accomplished, O great
King, by the Exalted One” — “Which was that difficult feat,
O venerable Nagasena?” - “The Exalted One, O king, has accomplished
a difficult task when he analysed a mental process having a single object
as consisting of consciousness with its concomitants, as follows: ‘This
is sense-impression, this is feeling, perception, volition, consciousness.”
- “Give an illustration of it, venerable sir” - “Suppose,
O king, a man has gone to the sea by boat and takes with the hollow of
his hand a little sea water and tastes it. Will this man know, ‘This is
water from the Ganges, this is water from such other rivers as Jamuna,
Aciravati etc.?” - “He can hardly know that.” - “But
a still more difficult task, O king, was accomplished by the Exalted One
when he analysed a mental process having a single object, as consisting
of consciousness with its concomitants.”

The rather terse
and abstract form in which the Dhammasangani presents its subject matter,
the analysis of mind, should not mislead the reader into making him believe
that he is confronted with a typical product of late scholastic thought.
When, in the course of closer study, he notices the admirable inner consistency
of the system, and gradually becomes aware of many of its subtle points
and far-reaching implications, he will become convinced that at least
the fundamental outlines and the key notes of Abhidhamma psychology must
be the result of a profound intuition gained through direct and penetrative
introspection. It will appear to him increasingly improbable that the
essence of the Abhidhamma should be the product of a cumbersome process
of discursive thinking and artificial thought-constructions. This impression
of the essentially intuitive origin of the Abhidhammic mind-doctrine will
also strengthen his conviction that the elements of the Dhammasangani
and the Patthana must be ascribed to the Buddha himself and his early
great and holy disciples. What is called ’scholastic thought’, which has
its merit in its own sphere and does not deserve wholesale condemnation,
may have had its share later in formulating, elaborating and codifying
the teachings concerned.

If we turn from the
Abhidhamma to the highest contemporary achievements of non-Buddhist Indian
thought in the field of mind and ’soul’, i.e. the early Upanishads and
the early Samkhya, we find that apart from single great intuitions, they
teem with mythological ritualistic terms, and with abstract speculative
concepts. Against that background the realistic sober and scientific spirit
of Abhidhamma psychology (or its nucleus extant in the Sutta period) must
have stood out very strongly. To those who could appreciate the import
of that contrast, it will have sufficed to instil that high esteem and
admiration for the Abhidhamma of which we have spoken.

But even if compared
with most of the later psychological teachings of the East or the West,
the distance from Abhidhamma psychology remains fundamentally the same,
for only the Buddha’s teaching on mind keeps entirely free from the notions
of self, ego, soul, or any other permanent entity in, or behind, mind.

1. Digha Nikaya (Collection of Long Discourses)

Kevatta (Kevaddha) Sutta

To Kevatta

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Nalanda in Pavarika’s mango grove. Then Kevatta the householder
approached the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to
one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One: “Lord,
this Nalanda is powerful, both prosperous and populous, filled with
people who have faith in the Blessed One. It would be good if the
Blessed One were to direct a monk to display a miracle of psychic power
from his superior human state so that Nalanda would to an even greater
extent have faith in the Blessed One.”

When this was said, the
Blessed One said to Kevatta the householder, “Kevatta, I don’t teach
the monks in this way: ‘Come, monks, display a miracle of psychic power
to the lay people clad in white.’”

A second time… A third time, Kevatta the householder said to the
Blessed One: “I won’t argue with the Blessed One, but I tell you: Lord,
this Nalanda is powerful, both prosperous and populous, filled with
people who have faith in the Blessed One. It would be good if the
Blessed One were to direct a monk to display a miracle of psychic power
from his superior human state so that Nalanda would to an even greater
extent have faith in the Blessed One.”

A third time, the Blessed One said to Kevatta the householder,
“Kevatta, I don’t teach the monks in this way: ‘Come, monks, display a
miracle of psychic power to the lay people clad in white.’

“Kevatta, there are these three miracles
that I have declared, having directly known and realized them for
myself. Which three? The miracle of psychic power, the miracle of
telepathy, and the miracle of instruction.

The Miracle of Psychic Power

“And what is the miracle of psychic power? There is the case where a
monk wields manifold psychic powers. Having been one he becomes many;
having been many he becomes one. He appears. He vanishes. He goes
unimpeded through walls, ramparts, and mountains as if through space.
He dives in and out of the earth as if it were water. He walks on water
without sinking as if it were dry land. Sitting cross-legged he flies
through the air like a winged bird. With his hand he touches and
strokes even the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful. He exercises
influence with his body even as far as the Brahma worlds.

“Then someone who has faith and conviction in him sees him wielding
manifold psychic powers… exercising influence with his body even as
far as the Brahma worlds. He reports this to someone who has no faith
and no conviction, telling him, ‘Isn’t it awesome. Isn’t it astounding,
how great the power, how great the prowess of this contemplative. Just
now I saw him wielding manifold psychic powers… exercising influence
with his body even as far as the Brahma worlds.’

“Then the person without faith, without conviction, would say to the
person with faith and with conviction: ‘Sir, there is a charm called
the Gandhari charm by which the monk wielded manifold psychic powers…
exercising influence with his body even as far as the Brahma worlds.’
What do you think, Kevatta — isn’t that what the man without faith,
without conviction, would say to the man with faith and with
conviction?”

“Yes, lord, that’s just what he would say.”

“Seeing this drawback to the miracle of psychic power, Kevatta, I
feel horrified, humiliated, and disgusted with the miracle of psychic
power.

Lesson Three

The closest Indian analogy to the position of black Americans is
that of Aboriginal Inhabitants of jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha
bharath (SC/STs) called as untouchables and made outcastes by the Central Asian
Invaders for millennia suffered discrimination and oppresion

Like blacks in the US, Aboriginal Inhabitants of jambudvipa, that
is, the Great Prabuddha bharath account for about 15 per cent of the
population; they are found disproportionately in low-status, low-income jobs;
their levels of education are lower than the upper castes; and they still face
daily incidents of discrimination for no reason other than their identity at
birth.

Only when an Aboriginal Inhabitants of
jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha bharath rules India can the
country truly be said to have attained its own “Obama moment.”

In theory, this already has happened: K. R. Narayanan, born into
a poor Aboriginal Inhabitants of jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha
bharath family, served as India’s
president, the highest office in the land, from 1997 to 2002.

But the Indian Presidency is a largely ceremonial position: real
power is vested in the office of prime minister, and no Aboriginal Inhabitants
of jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha bharath has come close to holding
that post. Since independence in 1947, a majority of India’s prime ministers have been
Brahmins, the highest Hindu caste.